Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

A Sanford felon prohibited by law from possessing a firearm was sentenced to 15 years in prison for having a handgun in November. Bobby Deon Horn, 32, pleaded guilty on May 28 to a federal charge of illegally possessing a firearm. Senior U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp sentenced Horn on Wednesday. Horn had a loaded gun on him when police responded to a 911 call about several men smoking marijuana near a closed post office on South Orange Blossom Trail on Nov. 23, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a report. "Horn was holding an open container of alcohol and the officers smelled the odor of marijuana on him,'' the report...

Homicides continue to drop in Chicago, to the lowest levels since the 1960s, but shootings remain stubbornly higher, with the numbers of incidents and victims both on the rise at the nine-month mark of 2014, according to statistics released Wednesday by...

The number of flights in and out of Chicago airports was steadily rising Sunday after a fire at an Aurora radar facility wreaked havoc on the nation’s air-travel system, federal aviation officials said, but the time frame for normal operations remained...

Air travelers Sunday likely can expect further delays and cancellations at Chicago airports as the Federal Aviation Administration worked to return traffic to normal this weekend after a fire Friday at the agency's Aurora radar facility wreaked havoc on...

More than a dozen people face federal gun charges after a monthslong Chicago-area sting operation led investigators to confiscate more than 100 guns, officials said today.
Fourteen people, 12 of them convicted felons, were charged in the investigation,...

An alleged longtime heroin and crack dealer, described by authorities as a patriarch of a Gangster Disciples gang faction, was arrested today along with dozens of others during a crackdown on two open-air drug spots on Chicago’s West Side.
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Two weeks after Chicago's rampant gun violence shot back into the national spotlight with a bloody Fourth of July weekend, federal authorities are scheduled to announce Thursday that seven new ATF agents are being deployed to the city to try to help...

It was a bloody confrontation more than three years ago in the desert brush of Arizona about 11 miles from the border with Mexico. When it was over, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was dead and two weapons found at the scene would shine a light on...

On a high-definition screen overhead, Chicago police surveillance video from a tough West Side street corner played in real time. At desks below, federal and local investigators combed through digital maps showing where violent crimes occur and where...

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information about the theft of more than a dozen semiautomatic assault rifles from a freight container at a rail yard in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood earlier this month.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms...

Part of a shipment of semiautomatic assault rifles was stolen this week from a freight train container at a rail yard in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, federal authorities and a railroad spokesman said.
The 13 Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport rifles...

Before the 14-year-old girl allegedly fired the shot that killed Endia Martin, the .38-caliber revolver had touched many hands.
A south suburban gun shop known for selling weapons later used in crimes in Chicago. A Hyde Park man whose mother did not want...

A large explosion leveled a home and damaged 50 others in a northwest suburban subdivision Friday night, prompting an emergency response from multiple jurisdictions and startling residents in neighboring communities miles away.
Crews are still on the...

A fire ravaged a Glory to Glory Family Christian Center building late Thursday night, according to authorities.
The building damaged was used by the church as a food pantry on the weekends.
"It's used once every Saturday to give about 100-something...

All private employers in Chicago would be required to provide paid sick days to their workers under a new proposal backed by a majority of the city’s 50 aldermen.
If the proposal sponsored by Aldermen Proco “Joe” Moreno, 1st and Toni Foulkes, 15th,...

Far from the pistol toting, Al Capone-busting Chicago lawman of lore, Eliot Ness “was afraid of guns and he barely left the office,” according to a retired IRS agent who spoke out Friday against naming a federal law enforcement building in honor of the...

A pair of Chicago aldermen introduced a resolution today opposing a proposal to name the headquarters of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after Prohibition-era crime fighter Eliot Ness.
Alds. Ed Burke, 14th, and James...

Cigarette smuggler Mustafa Mohd Shaikh was caught in June 2011 on an undercover recording describing how having the protection of a longtime sheriff's investigator meant his enterprise could operate with impunity.
"Anything happens to you in...

Retired ATF officer Mark Rusin of Lombard will discuss his debut novel Justice for Dallas at Lexington Square Lombard on Wednesday, November 13 at 2 p.m. Rusin formerly worked as an inspector for U.S. Customs, security director for Chicago Savings and...

A blast at a quarry in suburban McCook was well within safety limits, according to state officials who said Wednesday they cannot explain a subsequent tremor seconds later that rattled windows and frazzled nerves throughout the Chicago area.
The Illinois...